Chương 4
“A labeling error.”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me?”
“You were recovering.”
“Don’t.”
“You had hemorrhaged.”
“Don’t use my body to make your lie sound protective.”
Daniel looked away.
“I was scared.”
“What else?”
He said nothing.
Claire grabbed the lapel of his jacket.
“What else?”
“They showed me a form.”
“What form?”
“A transfer correction.”
“For whom?”
“I don’t know.”
She released him.
Daniel’s face had gone gray.
“There were two infant identification numbers attached to your patient file for eighteen minutes.”
Claire stared.
“One was Noah?”
“Yes.”
“And the other?”
“It had the same last name.”
The sidewalk seemed to tilt.
“What designation?”
Daniel looked at her.
Claire already knew.
“Baby B?”
He nodded.
She stepped away.
For a few seconds she could hear nothing except her own breathing.
Then Noah knocked from inside the SUV.
Once.
Twice.
Claire looked through the glass.
His face was barely visible.
She opened the door.
He climbed out immediately.
“Are you getting divorced?”
The question was so far from what Claire expected that she almost laughed.
“No.”
Daniel said nothing.
Claire looked at him.
“No?”
He nodded.
“No.”
Noah shoved his hands into his pockets.
“Then why did you slap Dad?”
Claire winced.
“I shouldn’t have done that.”
Daniel said, “I deserved—”
“No, you didn’t. Nobody deserves to be hit because I’m angry.”
Daniel looked at her.
Noah looked relieved by the familiar shape of a rule.
Claire crouched until she was level with him.
“There may have been another baby at the hospital when you were born. We don’t know what happened. We don’t know whether Eli has anything to do with it.”
“But Dad knew.”
“Dad knew there had been a problem with the records.”
“And didn’t tell you.”
Claire felt Daniel behind her.
“That’s right.”
Noah thought for a long moment.
“Why?”
Daniel answered.
“Because I was a coward.”
Claire looked back.
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“I told myself your mother had been through enough. Then weeks passed. Then months. Nothing happened. You were healthy. Every doctor said the pregnancy had started with a second sac that didn’t continue.”
Noah frowned.
“What’s a sac?”
Claire closed her eyes.
Daniel said, “A very early part of a pregnancy.”
“Oh.”
Noah processed that.
“So Eli could be my brother?”
“We don’t know,” Claire said quickly.
“But he could.”
Daniel spoke before Claire could stop him.
“Yes.”
Noah looked down the street.
“He’s by himself.”
The sentence cut through everything else.
Claire stood.
She called the number on the business card she had given Eli.
Of course there was no number.
She had given him hers.
She looked at Daniel.
“We have to find him.”
Daniel hesitated.
Claire saw it.
“What?”
“If there was misconduct at the hospital—”
“There is an eight-year-old child sleeping somewhere outside.”
“We don’t know that.”
“Did you see his clothes?”
“No.”
“Then don’t tell me what we don’t know.”
“I’m saying we should be careful.”
“With what?”
“If somebody gave him that bracelet deliberately—”
Claire laughed without humor.
“You think this is a setup?”
“I think an eight-year-old child somehow appeared two blocks from us carrying an artifact connected to Noah’s birth.”
“He didn’t approach us. Noah saw him.”
“That doesn’t mean—”
“Stop.”
Noah said quietly, “He tried to leave.”
Both adults turned toward him.
“He didn’t ask for money,” Noah continued. “He didn’t even want Mom to call anybody. If it was a trick, he was bad at it.”
Daniel looked at his son.
Noah shrugged.
“It’s true.”
Claire took out her phone.
“What are you doing?” Daniel asked.
“Calling someone who may be able to help us find a child without turning him into a criminal.”
“Who?”
“Mara.”
Daniel sighed.
“Your sister is going to make this worse.”
“She works in family court.”
“She also hates me.”
“She has excellent judgment.”
Despite everything, Noah made a small snorting sound.
Daniel looked at him.
“Et tu?”
“What’s that mean?”
“Nothing.”
Claire called her sister.
Mara Bennett-Lewis arrived forty minutes later wearing courtroom heels and carrying a paper cup of coffee she had forgotten to drink.
She was Claire’s older sister by three years and Daniel’s least favorite person at Thanksgiving.
She listened without interrupting.
Then she said, “Show me the bracelet.”
“We don’t have it.”
Mara stared at Claire.
“You let the child walk away?”
“He isn’t evidence.”
“I didn’t say he was.”
“You thought it.”
“I thought he has an object that could establish whether this is nonsense, fraud, hospital negligence, trafficking, an adoption issue, or something I’m going to regret hearing about.”
Daniel said, “Thank you.”
Mara looked at him.
“That wasn’t support.”
“I know.”
They stood outside a bakery because Noah had become hungry and Claire had suddenly realized none of them had eaten lunch.
The normality of ordering him a turkey sandwich while discussing a possibly missing child made Claire feel sick.
Noah picked the tomato out and placed it on his napkin.
Mara pointed at it.
“You liked tomatoes last month.”
“I changed.”
“People don’t change that fast.”
Noah looked at Daniel.
“Apparently they do.”
Daniel stopped chewing.
Claire closed her eyes.
Mara glanced between them.
“Okay. He’s mad.”
“Yes,” Daniel said.
“Good. Means he understands enough.”
Claire said, “Can we not analyze my child like a witness?”
“Then stop talking about him while he’s sitting here.”
Noah took another bite.
“Thank you, Aunt Mara.”
“You’re welcome.”
Claire drank water she did not want.
“What do we do?”
Mara’s practical expression returned.
“First, you don’t chase Eli around downtown. Second, you don’t post his picture online. Third, you do not call the hospital and announce that you think they misplaced a baby eight years ago.”
Daniel shifted.
Mara saw it.
“You already called someone.”
He looked at Claire.
“No.”
“Daniel.”
“I texted Robert Chen.”
Claire stared.
“Who is Robert Chen?”
“He’s general counsel for St. Matthew’s.”
Mara put down her coffee.
“You contacted hospital counsel?”
“I asked for a conversation.”
May you like
“About what?”
“I said I had questions about archival neonatal records.”
